Joy Ellis

Joy Ellis is an English crime author best known for her atmospheric mysteries set in the eerie, windswept landscape of the Lincolnshire Fens.

Her stories blend police procedural detail with a strong sense of place, making them ideal for cozy crime readers who enjoy darker edges without graphic content.

Before becoming a full-time writer, Joy had a varied career, training as a florist in Mayfair and eventually running a successful floristry business in Weybridge, Surrey.

She later managed an independent bookshop in Leatherhead, where her lifelong love of books and storytelling deepened and helped steer her toward writing crime fiction.

Joy and her partner Jacqueline, a highly decorated former police officer, have lived in a village on the Lincolnshire Fens for more than twenty years, surrounded by their spaniels.

The Fens themselves, with their mists, flat horizons, and isolated lanes, provide the perfect inspiration and backdrop for her novels.

Since joining Joffe Books in 2016, she has written multiple bestselling series and more than thirty novels, with the Jackman & Evans books in development as a television series.

Mini Biography

Joy Ellis was born in Kent in 1947 and grew up an only child in a modest two-up, two-down house, in the challenging post-war years of rationing and power cuts.

She left school early to take up a demanding floristry apprenticeship at the prestigious Constance Spry shop in London’s South Audley Street, later working in several high-profile florists around the capital.

Her working life took many turns, from factory work and petrol station shifts to hospital employment, before she co-founded and then ran a busy flower shop in Weybridge for 14 years, creating displays for venues like Westminster Abbey and high-society events.

When recession and supermarket competition forced the shop to close, Joy moved into bookselling, working at Heathrow’s WH Smith and then managing an independent bookshop in Leatherhead.

A pivotal moment came in 1995 when, after struggling with ME, she travelled alone to the Greek island of Skyros to attend a writing course with author Sue Townsend.

Encouraged and mentored by Townsend, Joy committed to pursuing writing and was later able to send her first published hardback to her mentor before Townsend’s death.

Now settled in the Fens with Jacqueline and a lively household of spaniels, Joy focuses on crafting crime novels inspired by both the landscape and Jacqueline’s policing experience.

Her work has achieved multiple UK number-one Kindle bestsellers and millions of sales worldwide.

Literary & TV Achievements

Joy Ellis has earned significant recognition in crime fiction, particularly in audio and digital formats.

In 2018 she was named Audible’s Breakthrough Crime Writer of the Year, followed by a 2019 Audie Awards finalist spot in the Thriller/Suspense category for Their Lost Daughters.

Her novel The Patient Man was shortlisted for Crime and Thriller Book of the Year at the 2021 British Book Awards, placing her alongside Richard Osman and Ian Rankin.

She has also celebrated multiple Amazon Kindle number-one bestsellers and millions of global sales, marking her out as a leading voice in contemporary British crime writing.

The TV adaptation currently in development is based on Joy Ellis’s DI Rowan Jackman & DS Marie Evans novels, which will be brought to the screen under the working title The Fens.

The series is being produced by Richard Armitage’s company White Boar Films alongside Sprout Pictures, with international distributor Eccho Rights attached.

BAFTA-nominated screenwriter Tim Dynevor is adapting the books, and Richard Armitage is set to star as DI Rowan Jackman, leading a returning crime drama set against the eerie, cinematic landscape of the Lincolnshire Fens.

The adaptation will draw on multiple Jackman & Evans titles rather than a single book, using Joy Ellis’s existing plots and characters as the spine for a long-running series.